Doctors Without Borders billboard misleadingly altered to add 'rape unpunished in China' message

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Chinese social media platforms have shared a screenshot of a doctored billboard that appears to show a message encouraging African men to marry Chinese women and have many children. Text on the advertisement has been edited to suggest that rape in China would go unpunished. But the original signboard was part of a campaign by aid group Doctors Without Borders Belgium (MSF) in Liberia from at least 2006 which encouraged victims of sexual violence to seek help.

"This is a poster in Africa about Chinese women," reads a post on China's Twitter-like Weibo platform shared on May 22.

It shows a picture of a billboard which appears to say that rape would go unpunished in China.

"Rape rape rape. You can do it in China," it says. "Refugees can do anything! Contact the Chinese embassy now. You will not be punished."

The Weibo post, written in simplified Chinese, says the billboard encourages African men to travel to China to get married and have lots of children. The post features a hashtag that translates as "resist black people".


Screenshot of the false Weibo post, captured on May 23, 2023

The picture of the altered billboard was shared on various Chinese sites, including Weibo, Douyin and content aggregation site Yidian Zixun -- and also on Twitter.

Discussion and public awareness of racism is notoriously low in China, where reports of discrimination and xenophobia surged during the pandemic (archived link).

In May, hundreds of Chinese netizens reportedly changed their profile pictures to white policemen -- a reference to police brutality against black people -- to troll black social media users in China (archived link).

MSF healthcare campaign

A Google reverse image search found a photo of the same billboard but with a different message (archived link).

The pedestrians, cars and electricity pylons in the background are the same as in the photo of the fabricated billboard, but the text gives information of services to help rape victims.

"Rape rape rape. Seek free treatment immediately," it says. "Clara Town Clinic. New Kru Town Clinic. Island Hospital. Time can make the difference."

The top-right corner of the billboard shows the logo of the Belgium branch of Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières).

Below is a screenshot comparison of the doctored billboard (left) and the original billboard (right), with similarities marked by AFP:


Screenshot comparison of the doctored billboard (left) and the original bilboard (right), with similarities marked by AFP

A spokesman for the Belgium branch of Doctors Without Borders was unable to confirm when and where the billboard was displayed.

However, keyword searches led to a 2005 article that mentioned the clinics and hospital listed on the billboard as part of MSF's wartime medical support in Monrovia, Liberia (archived link).

AFP also found that MSF Belgium was running an awareness campaign in Liberia that featured billboards with this design as early as 2006.

A similar billboard with the same text but a different image can be seen in a United Nations report dated December 2006 to February 2007 (archived link).


A picture of the free treatment billboard attributed to the Médecins Sans Frontières Belgium branch

The charity's Activity Report 2009 detailed MSF's work to help victims of sexual violence in Liberia, and mentions the clinics in Clara Town, New Kru Town and Island Town (archived link).


Screenshot of page 22 of the MSF’s 2009 annual activity report, with mentioned sites outlined by AFP

A picture of the same billboard was previously altered to add text encouraging the killing of white South Africans.

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